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The biggest applause at the Sundance world premiere of Julie Delpy’s Two Days in New York last January were reserved for the actress-director’s perpetually mugging 70-year-old dad, actor Albert Delpy.

It’s fitting since the cartoonish, fish-out-of-water Frenchman in the Big Apple he plays with such over-the-top enthusiasm is the one bright spot in his daughter’s otherwise exhausting sequel to 2007’s Two Days in Paris.

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Once again we meet up with Delpy’s Marion, an emotional picnic basket stuffed with neuroses and whine. She’s traded in boyfriend Jack (Adam Goldberg), father of her toddler son Lulu (what did the kid ever do to her to earn that name?), for a new mate, the seriously cool radio deejay Mingus. Played by Chris Rock in low-key style, he wisely drops into a huddle to let the Gallic maelstrom swirl around him.

The principal cast from Two Days in Paris is reunited for their assault on New York as they arrive for photographer Marion’s art show. Dad Jeannot (Albert Delpy), who is detained at customs for smuggling several kilos of sausage down his pants (a joke that goes on far too long), flaky sister Rose (Alexia Landeau) and Marion’s dopey ex-boyfriend Manu (Alex Nahon), who is now dating Rose, all crowd the apartment, along with Mingus’s daughter from a previous marriage and the unfortunately named Lulu.

Two days of misunderstandings ensue as Marion prepares for her show, which includes an existential highlight: she’s selling her soul for $10,000. Tough economic times mean it goes at a discount to a mystery buyer (Vincent Gallo in an odd cameo).

Perhaps it’s the Manhattan backdrop coupled with Marion’s nervous twitches and obsessions, but on more than one occasion the ghost of Woody Allen haunts the film, especially when sex or death is the topic of discussion.

Delpy’s Marion can be charming; she’s daffy and lovely but occasionally grating, and her emotionally demanding family is too much for Mingus. He copes by talking to a cutout of Barack Obama in his study, essentially trying out new comedy material. The sisters battle endlessly, Manu acts like an ass and Jeannot tries his hand at a few fractured words of English while mugging and miming to provide comic relief. At least he’s fun to watch while the rest of them torture one another.

The good news is Delpy is back at work on a third part of her superb bittersweet romantic saga Before Sunrise (1995) and Before Sunset (2004) with co-star Ethan Hawke. Richard Linklater is back directing.

It’s time for Delpy to leave Marion in New York for good and head back to Paris. Besides, the sausage is better there.

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